


bright eyes

by buckybear (eds_spagheds)



Series: one-shots that make endgame hurt more [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Hurt Peter Parker, IS THAT REALLY SO MUCH TO ASK FOR, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Other, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, and he gets one, apparently it is according to the russos, he just wants to be happy with his son, i guess we'll all just die mad about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 23:25:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18838921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eds_spagheds/pseuds/buckybear
Summary: the endgame final battle, but w o r s e





	bright eyes

**Author's Note:**

> tw: death. a lot of death. nothing super violent, but yeah people die
> 
> also, i listened to the sleeping at last cover of 'total eclipse of the heart' while writing this and i would totally recommend it to make it much sadder if you also hate yourself and want to cry

“Queens! Get outta’ there!” Steve shouted, his voice booming across the battlefield. Tony’s head immediately snapped up at the mention of his kid. He spotted Steve from a dozen or so yards away and followed his line of vision to Tony’s opposite side where Peter was practically buried in a swarm of Thanos’ monsters. His heart clenched at his kid in danger, but Steve was one step ahead of him and before he knew it, Mjolnir went soaring over his head.

“Grab on, kid!” Steve called out over the noise and Peter didn’t hesitate to launch a web right for the handle, effectively launching himself out of the swarm.

Tony heaved a sigh of relief, but immediately regretted it as he noticed why all of the monsters had been after him in the first place.

The gauntlet.

Peter had the gauntlet.

The kid had the one thing everyone was after and now he was swinging across the entire battlefield, broadcasting it to everyone.

As soon as Tony spotted Thanos charging for his kid, he took off. He made Friday charge up his thrusters to full power and he slammed into the mad titan. The unexpected force sent Thanos stumbling just before he fell, he swung his blade and Peter fell right out of the sky. The sword, of sorts, cut right through the webbing, but not without first tugging Mjolnir back slightly, making it fall as well, just close enough for Peter to web it into his waiting hand before strapping the gauntlet onto his back with a few webs.

The boy didn’t seem to think anything of it as he didn’t hesitate to fight Thanos off alongside Tony, but the older man looked at him like Peter had suddenly grown a second head or something.

“Thor, we got another one!” Tony called over their comms and Peter could almost hear the proud grin in his voice. He swung the hammer right in the middle of Thanos’ chest, watching the titan fall to the ground and he immediately shot out as many webs as he could, attaching each end to Mjolnir before slamming the hammer into the ground, a surge of lightning shooting through each web, jolting Thanos’ entire body through his armor.

“Yes!” Peter squealed a little bit to himself when he heard Thor cheering for him from across the field, turning to the god and tossing the hammer back to him, who continued their game of hot potato and threw it back to Steve. “Stark, your son is worthy!” Thor’s excitement seemed to only come close to Tony’s as the man immediately swooped Peter up off the ground, taking them both to a separate section of the battle, far enough from the currently incapacitated-Thanos.

Tony’s helmet disappeared as soon as they touched the ground and he severed the gauntlet from Peter’s back as the boy removed his mask.

“Tony, the gauntlet!” Tony looked up to see Scott standing before him. He tossed the man the gauntlet and turned back to Peter once he saw the man shrink, effectively disappearing from the current view.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter had a look of excitement and pride on his face, something Tony wasn’t surprised to see after the feat he had just pulled off.

“You never cease to amaze me kiddo,” Tony laughed, ruffling the boy’s hair.

“Thanks, sir,” Peter smiled, a blush rising to his cheeks. “But…about what Thor said…why does he think I’m your son?” He asked shyly and Tony knew from the look on the kid’s face that he wasn’t even thinking about welding Mjolnir. No, his kid was just thinking about him.

“Pete, there’s no easy way to say this,” he started, mentally scolding himself for his word choice when he saw Peter’s face fall. “You’re my kid, underoos. At least in my eyes. I don’t blame you if that’s not what you want but, I love you like a son, Peter. I always-“

Peter launched himself into Tony’s arms, wrapping his own around the man and holding on as tightly as he could. Tony barely hesitated to reciprocate.

“I love you too, Dad,” Peter whispered, Tony’s hand curling up to cradle the back of his head.

Tony could see tears brimming in Peter’s eyes when they pulled away, but he was sure there were some in his own as well.

“Let’s go finish this, yeah?” Peter beamed at the man’s words and nodded, swinging back into the fray, Tony blasting off right at his side.

There wasn’t much Tony regretted more than splitting up. It was surreal to think that before that moment, he never would’ve guessed the last words his kid would ever say to him would be “I love you, dad”. It was everything he’d ever wanted to hear, just so far from the circumstance in which he wanted to hear it.

Scott and Hope were so close to getting the quantum tunnel working when he heard it. He was fending of anything that tried to attack the van while the duo worked, but he felt his heart stop at the scream.

Somehow he knew.

Call it a father’s intuition, but he knew the moment he heard the scream.

He signaled to Pepper to take over by the van and within seconds he found the source of the screaming. There was a girl on her knees, tears in her eyes and horror written all over her face. She looked young, probably close to Peter’s age, with dark skin and her hair in an intricate bun on the top of her head. Just the sight of her crying was enough to make his heart clench with the thought of Peter but then he saw it.

No.

No, no, he didn’t want to believe it.

He removed his suit, the nanobots retreating back into their housing unit and he scrambled across the dirt floor to his boy. His kid, his son lying motionless on the ground.

“He-he came to s-save me! He took the h-hit for me!” The girl wailed between pleas to Tony to not let him die.

Tony was barely listening. All he could see was his kid. There was no noise around him, no one else but them. He desperately grasped Peter’s face in his hands, shaking him gently as he felt tears begin to spill down his cheeks.

“Pete?” He choked out, shaking him again, but to no avail. “Peter, kid, you gotta’ get up.” He brushed the hair from the kid’s face, threading his fingers through the curls.

Nothing.

He gingerly pressed two fingers to the base of the boy’s neck, praying to any god out there that he would find a pulse.

Well, the universe always had been cruel to him anyway. Everything in his life had always led him to the conclusion that Starks simply didn’t deserve good things. Peter was the _best_ thing _._ Being able to hear his son tell him he loved him…that was the best feeling in the world. He should’ve known he wouldn’t get to keep him.

He wasn’t sure if he had screamed too, but he pulled Peter into his arms, tucking the boy’s head under his chin as he rocked them back and forth 

“Peter, please don’t leave me,” he begged, knowing deep down that it was hopeless. “Please, I can’t lose you again.”

He sat there holding his kid in his arms, praying for a miracle he knew wouldn’t come until someone finally found them. He heard the girl calling out to someone, it sounded like she said ‘brother’, and only moments later, a third member joined the group.

“Tony?” Steve’s voice.

He squeezed his eyes shut, choking out a sob as the man’s hand pressed gently on his shoulder. He pressed his face into Peter’s hair and wept.

“It’s okay, baby,” he whispered, visions of him holding his newborn daughter in his arms for the first time clouding his sight. “Daddy’s got you. Daddy’s got you.”

Steve was slightly taken aback at the sight, but gently placed his hand on Tony’s shoulder, unable to take his eyes off of the kid’s body.

“Tony,” he supplies again, not expecting to get much of a response, but he was wrong.

“Steve?” Tony wasn’t sure if he had ever actually called the man by his real name. It felt cruel now, to think of reducing the man to his alter ago. “Steve, m-my...my _kid_.”

He collapsed into another spell of tears and Steve gently put his hands on Peter’s body, under his back and legs.

“Tony, I’ll take him somewhere safe, far enough away from here,” he spoke as gently as he could. “We gotta’ destroy the bastards who did this.”

Tony looked up at him incredulously before he tightened his grip on Peter, pulling him close once more before kissing his forehead and nodding for Steve to take him.

“Go before I change my mind,” Tony mumbled, Steve immediately holding the boy as carefully as possible and dashing away from the battle.

Tony tapped the nanobots’ housing unit twice and the suit formed around him. He blasted off back towards Thanos where he was already going head to head with Thor. As he crossed the landscape, he couldn’t help but check something.

“Hey, Fri?” He asked, his AI lighting up the screen of his helmet. “Can you patch me through to Karen?”

The AI obeyed and Karen’s feed split the screen with Friday’s.

“Karen, give it to me straight. Is…is there any chance that he’ll be okay?” There was no response for a moment, but then, as if she had too lost someone very special to her, Karen answered.

“Boss, Mr. Parker has no brain activity. His heart stopped, it…it would take a miracle.”

Tony cursed under his breath, but willed himself not to cry as he swooped in, slamming into Thanos. The face-off seemed to go by in a blur. Tony couldn’t think about anything other than making sure that Thanos and the rest of his army would pay for taking his kid away from him. He only saw red.

He was practically out of his own body as his repulsers fired and his fists swung and he felt tears streaming down his cheeks but he couldn’t stop, he _couldn’t_ , because he owed it to his kid, his beautiful boy that was ripped from him too soon to _try_. He owed him at least that much.

So as Captain Danvers, and T’challa, and eventually Steve, and so many more joined in the fight, they all followed an unspoken rule that Tony deserved the final blow.

It made Tony’s heart drop when, just as Captain Danvers had the gauntlet ready to snap, Thanos ripped out the power stone and sent her flying across the ground, snatching the gauntlet out of her grasp. Tony dove for it, desperate to stop him from snapping. Even if he felt like he had died all over again that day, he couldn’t stand losing the rest of his family too. In the end, Thanos practically threw him across the battlefield, not knowing what the man had done. He rose his fingers to snap and as the burnt metal made that horrible ‘ _clink_ ’ he didn’t even flinch.

All he felt were the stones on a gauntlet of his own, surging through his entire body. He wasn’t afraid. He was saving his family. His whole giant family. What was left of it at least.

He used what last bit of strength he had to utter the four words that started it all and he snapped his fingers. Everything turned white.

He didn’t mind that he couldn’t properly appreciate the man who orchestrated his son’s death meeting his own demise, but he finally felt closer to peace than he had been in decades.

His wife and their daughter were safe. He had more faith in Pepper than anyone else in the world that she would be able to keep it that way.

His team was back together, save for a few missing pieces, but they were stronger than ever.

And his son. His beautiful boy was gone, but Tony wouldn’t dare leave him alone. In fact, he was sure Natasha would take good care of him wherever they were, but he had to admit…all of it was worth it. Everything it took to save those they all lost was worth it just to hear Peter say he loved him.

He couldn’t help but smile a little when Rhodey came to his side, leading the others to where he lay. He was barely breathing, barely holding on, but he was staying alive. He was staying alive for them. For his honeybear and his wife. His daughter and his team. For his son who would want him to get the chance to say goodbye when he couldn’t.

“It’s okay, Tony,” he could hear Pepper’s voice as his eyes found her teary smile. “You can rest now.”

He smiled one last time, and actually listened to her for once.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading, im sorry i put y'all through that
> 
> as always, kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and requests are open indefinitely so feel free to suggest something either in the comments or on my tumblr @krustywhore :)


End file.
